


Lessons in Latte

by AmazonX



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: JARVIS is a BAMF, M/M, coffee is king, foam art, it's not a butt, open eyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-30
Updated: 2013-10-30
Packaged: 2017-12-31 00:19:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1025099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmazonX/pseuds/AmazonX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve's new art form is oblivious to the one person he wants to show off to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons in Latte

**Author's Note:**

> This came from a photo of Iron Man made in latte milk foam. There are people that do really intricate pictures, and I thought...Steve could do that. My first STony, so be gentle, but be honest and I hope you all like it! Thank you to my bestest Bro and beta, Emyrldlady. She takes me to task and makes me a better writer. And she's a fucking great writer herself and she posts here, check her out!

It turned out that settling into the 21st century wasn’t as difficult for Steve as everyone thought it would be. He was a smart guy, after all, having graduated at the top of his class, and in Flatbush that wasn’t too easy. He got a scholarship to an art school, but that was all in the past. He was learning how to use smart phones and computers and the internet. Photoshop was a little tricky, but he was getting the hang of it with the tutorials JARVIS had been making for him.

He wanted something else to do. Oh, there was a lot to do when it came to working with SHIELD and saving the world from the occasional Doombot or Skrull/Kree fight, and he was eager to put the red, white and blue on to save the population at large. But he needed more, and he wasn’t sure what that was.

Thankfully, he spent a fair portion of his time with his best friend, and SHIELD-appointed educator, Darcy Lewis. She’d been with him since the end of the Battle of Manhattan. Unlike Jane, who was safely away from the battle, Darcy had been in NYC retrieving some of their equipment, including her precious iPod. She had been stuck inside the SHIELD headquarters safe room along with a dozen other civilians for the entire battle, only being released once Maria Hill had cleared them. It was decided to keep Darcy from trouble that she would help integrate Steve to this millennium.

And he was doing well enough. He was just bored. Doombots and Skrull attacks were few and far between. So, what was a super soldier to do? 

“Barista classes…” Darcy blurted one morning, looking through the Village Voice online.   
“What?” he asked, stirring his own cup of plain black coffee.

“Like those art latte classes, you know? Remember, we went to that one coffee house and the guy did the kind of drawing in the foam. He made the leaves, while flirting outrageously with you.” Darcy nudged Steve’s foot under the table.

“Yeah, you saw the flirting. I saw a guy who wanted more than a dollar tip.”

They were alone in the communal kitchen in Avengers tower. Normally, it was full of other team members, but Clint and Natasha were on assignment, Tony was in Malibu finishing business with his old home, Thor was in Asgard with Jane, enjoying the first half of his honeymoon, and Bruce was working in Helsinki on a very special genetic project that would possibly help cancer patients recover from radiation treatments faster. So Darcy and Steve were enjoying a rare morning alone, still wearing their pajamas.

“So, what about the class?” she asked again.

“What class? What is it?”

“Learning the foam art, stupid! You wanna go?”

“Both of us?” Steve asked. “I didn’t know you were interested in art.”

“I’m interested in good coffee. And I can drink the fruits of your labors!” She gave Steve a wide grin. He shook his head and threw his napkin at her.

“When exactly is this class?” he asked, caving to her will, like she knew he would.

So they went to the class, and surprising no one, Steve had a fabulous time. Of course, he turned the barista down when asked for a date. His name was Jeff, and he was the quintessential Italian-American stud: 6-foot-4, cut muscles and dark curly hair. But Steve had to say no.

“Oh, I’m sorry, sweetie, I didn’t know you were straight!” Jeff said. “I swear, on the TV sometimes, the way you look at Tony Stark, I could swear you were a friend of Dorothy.”

Steve played dumb at that statement, pretending to be completely straight bordering on narrow, but not insulting.

“I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. While I’m all for all American citizens to have freedom to love and marry any other adult citizen, I personally am not…”

“Oh, don’t you worry, Cap,” another man shouted. He was a shorter Latino man, but he was wearing a full face of makeup, had long nails painted red and large gold hoop earrings. “We know you’re behind the boys and girls in pink! We all were so happy when you when you marched in the Pride parade.”

Steve smiled and nodded, and continued to pour his foamed milk to make the leaf pattern in the cup. He thought back to the day he donned his Army dress uniform and marched for equality. He knew a few soldiers in his time that were gay, and while they were never allowed to speak of it, he wanted to let them know they weren’t alone. That he, too, kept the secret. But he kept that secret from everyone, except Darcy, of course. And Natasha, who just told him out right she knew, didn’t care, and wouldn’t say anything until he did.

It was a point of pride that Captain Steve Rogers wanted everyone to know he, not Captain America, supported the fight. He didn’t know how the entire country would feel about one of their beloved Avengers being gay, so he hid it. Maybe they wouldn’t care. But maybe they wouldn’t trust him anymore. And he needed the citizens of America to trust him to lead their heroes, to keep them safe.  
Darcy looked over and watched as Steve began another cup of coffee, and she stole the leaf cup to start drinking.

“Hey! I’m working!”

“Yeah, and you’re doing another cup. So this one’s mine!” She sipped it and smiled, upper lip covered in beige foam, red lipstick staining the cup. He loved that about her, the devil-may-care attitude she had, and how she threw caution to the wind and did as she liked. He loved her free spirit and lived a little vicariously through her. She turned that attitude on a guy sitting a few tables away who’d been pretending to read and actually staring at her. Steve knew he’d be hearing about her date with him the next morning.

Jeff the barista came by to see how Steve was doing and looked at the next picture he was making, a heart. “You’re picking this up really well, Steve. You should come to the next class. I’m going to teach real pictures. And the third class is using color!”

“Color, how do you do that?” Steve asked, showing Darcy the heart he made with the toothpick drawing the middles of a circle down to be the points of the heart. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture, sending it to the Avengers Twitter account. Another job she took on was being the official online voice of the Avengers. She took that very seriously, trying to keep things light and fun. Which meant being creative for Steve, showing all the goofy things that Clint did, keeping Tony’s naked antics off the web and keeping Natasha and Bruce as out of the spotlight as much as possible. Thor had his own Twitter account, and Facebook page (“Jane, my princess, the Internet has a book of faces I have joined and I have put my face in this book!), so he was on his own. But she liked showing the other side of the Avengers, Steve’s coffee art, and Tony’s loving care of his robots, and Clint shooting the Nerf bow and arrow that had been designed after his own recurve bow.

“Oh, you have to see all the flavored syrups we have! They end up all the colors of the rainbow! You can make your shield, and Iron Man’s mask, oh! Would you help me host an Avengers’ art class for latte foam? I mean, after we get you educated.”

Steve smiled. This was the best idea his best friend had ever had. “Sure, and thank Darcy, she made me come here today.”

And so Steve went to the next classes, and learned how to make different pictures in the coffee, and when Darcy presented him with the adamantium spoon, the tiniest spoon he’d ever seen, to help him make his pictures, he knew he had to start making coffee for the entire team. Within the month, he was a true coffee artist. Clint requested birds, all different kinds, which was an interesting chore for Steve, getting the colors right. Bruce liked art pieces, Mondrian, Van Gogh, and Matisse. Thor didn’t care for the art, he just wanted the coffee, but he complimented any picture Steve made for him.

“Truly, Steven, any of your drawings are most welcome to me! Your artwork is the wonder of Asgard! My friends, the Warriors Three and the lovely Lady Sif enjoy the pictures I post on the book of faces page!”

“I could listen to him for hours,” Clint drawled, looking at Thor, batting his eyelashes.

“Be kind, little bird, or you may not be able to shoot your bow with a broken wing.”

“Always the bully, right Big Guy?” Darcy teased, poking him in the side.

“Oh, that’s love making, for them,” Natasha chimed in, sipping at her own coffee. She preferred black espresso, but knowing how happy it made Steve to trace little red spiders in the foam, she allowed him to make her cappuccinos, so they weren’t so milky, but he could practice his art.

What truly annoyed Steve, though, was the way he would bring Tony his coffee, and the man didn’t even look at it. He grabbed the cup and would almost down the entire thing in one gulp, saying a distracted thank you, whether he was working on a hologram, a suit or a car. It was kind of annoying.  
And Darcy noticed.

“Look, buddy, he’s just like that,” she said, as she was slowly pedaling the exercise bicycle beside where Steve was squatting with a 500 lb. barbell on his shoulders. She was lazily thumbing through that month’s Vogue, dog-earring pages she wanted to make sure to foist on Steve to see if he wanted to buy them for her. He never did, but she tried.

“It’s rude. He should at least look at who is leaving the coffee for him.” Steve dropped the barbell and Darcy could feel the floor shake below her. “You know, you could get more of a workout if you, I don’t know, picked up a little speed.” Steve was looking down at her feet on the pedals.

“And lose my girlish curves? Not on your life! Plus, I don’t like to sweat.” She turned another page of her magazine with a flourish.

Steve wiped his face to hide his eye roll, and then drank deeply from his water bottle. “Well, I have one last class, and I’m going tomorrow. We’re going to be doing stained glass designs. You’d love it. Then, you’ll get more coffee, and hopefully, another date. How did the last one go with that guy you flirted with while I made you coffee?”

“Oh, he wasn’t anything special. I’m going to find someone more worthy who wants some of this…what did you call me?”

“Nose-cone-art material. If this was the war, I’d be painting you on the side of a bomber. That’s why women are called bombshells.”

“Thank you, Cliffy.” Steve just shook his head. Finally, a modern reference he got. Cheers was a fun show, really. It made him want to drink beer, even though it wouldn’t get him drunk. It gave Darcy an excuse to make him buy all the “craft beers” and he did enjoy the taste.

“A bigger mug,” Darcy said.

“What?” Steve asked.

“Get Tony a bigger mug, to make bigger pictures. Then, he’ll notice them.” She got off the bike and said, “I’m going to get a shower, and then you and I are going to the class today, and then, to Pier One. We’ll get Tony a mug the size of a serving bowl!”

Steve just shook his head and went along with her. And the class was great, just like the last four had been. And Steve promised to come back and give a class on Avengers’ art. Darcy, hopped up on sugar and caffeine (which prompted Steve to make a mental note to get decaf espresso and sugar-free syrups), dragged him to every store in the lower part of Manhattan that she could think of that might carry mugs, and sadly, was eventually forced to admit defeat. Steve just shook his head.

“Come on, let’s get a cab uptown, kiddo. I’ll show you where my ma used to go,” Steve dictated.

“Good, cuz while these boots look awesome on my calves, they’re murder on my feets!” In the cab, Darcy threw her legs over Steve’s lap and leaned back.

“Where to?” the driver asked.

“34th and 6th, please.”

“Oh, the Macy’s, yes, having a sale.” They took off into traffic, and Steve began to massage Darcy’s calves.

“Macy’s was open back then?” she asked.

“Macy’s opened long before I was born,” he said.

“Look at you! You’re really the Star-Spangled Man with the Plan!”

Steve just smiled at her. They arrived shortly in Herald Square, and Darcy looked up at the tall building that housed the store that spawned her favorite Christmas film. Steve took her by the hand to the wooden escalator that led to the basement where housewares were kept. He remembered being excited going down stairs where he didn’t have walk, and get winded.

The housewares department hadn’t changed all that much in design from when he was a boy, but had completely changed in merchandise. He’d never really kept up with kitchen appliances, but the pots and pans and small appliances and dishes…He was lost in a moment. Being a clumsy child didn’t help when he was a big, clumsy man, and didn’t want to walk past the displays of breakable dishes. Darcy to the rescue, it seemed.

“Oh for heaven’s sake!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him down the main aisle to an area that held lots of coffee makers and associated paraphernalia. Steve already had the items he needed to make the pretty latte pictures, but he just needed the new mugs.

“Oh, wow, these are nice!” she exclaimed, picking one large red mug up. “This one has Tony written all over it. Hey! You got the art thing, right? You can paint on the mugs, too! We can get glass paint at an art store. OMG, this will be perfect!”

She chose all the different mugs in colors for the entire team and those related to it, including Coulson, Hill, Sitwell and Fury. Steve wasn’t comfortable holding as many mugs as she placed in his arms, hoping he didn’t drop them, when a saleswoman came to their rescue. She held a basket and placed the mugs in them.

“I’ll take these to the register to start the sale, and wrap them up.” She smiled widely at Steve and blushed a little. 

He smiled back and said, “Thank you, ma’am. It’s much appreciated.”

“Oh, Steve, look, they have waffle makers! We should…”

“No! Anything we bring home, Tony will try and rev it up to light speed and then it will be useless for anything but nuclear fusion.” Steve remembered the debacle with the electric griddle, where Tony felt it wasn’t heating up enough to cook their pancakes fast enough. He’d tweaked it so much that the pancake batter burned on contact with the surface. It had to be dismantled by the fire department before it could be disposed of.

“Oh, come on, just…”

“No! This is plenty. I’ll go get the paint myself tomorrow, and some brushes. Then we can decide the painting stuff together.”

So Darcy pouted as she trailed Steve to the cash register where he was happy to pull out the American Express black card that Tony had given him as a gift. He didn’t quite get why he needed a credit card in this way, when he had his checking account debit card. He didn’t like having debts. But it was one of the things that Darcy explained to him. Everyone carried debts. It was just the way of life. Yet, with the black card, Stark Industries paid the bill. And considering he was technically a Stark employee, as security specialist, he felt this was a justified purchase.

Over the next few days, Steve sat at his suite counter bar, newspaper spread all over the laminate counter top and carefully painting designs on the different cups. For Hill, he painted a green hill covered with flowers. For Fury, a pirate ship, since it was a well-known fact he would scare the life out of junior agents by sneaking up behind them and shouting “Arrrr!” and then sauntering away like nothing was wrong.

The teammates had their symbols painted on their mugs, but also something special and personal about each of them that Steve shared with them. Hawkeye had a small pink ball in motion painted on his, for his and Steve’s love of handball. Natasha had pink ballet slippers painted on her black mug. Steve knew she had always wanted to dance prima ballerina in the Russian Ballet, but being raised as she was, it would never have happened. But she still practiced and occasionally, she would allow Steve to watch. For Bruce, Steve painted a very intricate Mandela on the mug, opposite the side with two large green fists. Thor’s was a very detailed depiction of the gates of the palace of Asgard. Though Steve had only been there once, but it was a sight he would never forget.

Coulson was a bit more difficult. Steve had to think about it a while, before he attempted to put brush to cup. When the idea hit him, his hand couldn’t be steadied. “You’re painting Tahiti for him?” Darcy asked. 

“Yes, I think he had a really good time there.”

Then came the mug for Tony. What could he paint on Tony’s mug that was just between them? But there wasn’t anything. Well, anything that Steve could be sure that Tony felt on his end. While Steve cared deeply for his teammate and friend, when it came to how he felt deep in his heart, he couldn’t manage to express it. So, he painted the arc reactor on one side, and the mask on the other. It was the best he could do.

When the mugs had dried and been distributed with their coffee art, it was the hit of the Tower. Everyone was excited, both about the art outside and inside their mugs. Even Natasha broke character, just for a moment, kissing Steve’s cheek in private and telling him, “You have the talent of a master.”

Darcy’s mug was pink, painted with a winged unicorn flying high in the pink sky, a rainbow trailing behind it, with sparkles in its mane and jewels around the horn. “Steve, you’re my very best friend. And I love you!” she exclaimed, staring at the mug as if it were a miracle.

The only person who didn’t bother to look at his mug was Tony. He just grabbed the handle and took a deep drink, then put it back down to go back to his work on his suit. Yes, it was very important for him to work on his suit, since it was his entire life, really. If there was something not right, he would either tumble out of the sky, or something would knock him right out of it. Neither scenario was something Steve wanted to think about. Still, it would have been nice if he just looked at the mug and coffee just once.

So he gave up. Steve stopped with the intricate art designs on all the coffee he made. Then, he stopped making coffee all together. He didn’t want to be some random barista in his own home. The team noticed, all but Tony, who was perfecting his prehensile suit with an accuracy that even JARVIS had to admire. Which everyone had to admit was better than getting coffee. But not by much.

Between Doombot attacks, mutant hybrid bee-sharks and a frost giant invasion or two, it came upon one year that all the Avengers were living together in the newly renovated Avengers’ Tower. Darcy decided this called for a dinner party of the entire Avengers Initiative, including Jane, Hill, Fury, Son of Coul and Betty Ross, whom she hoped would be getting a green diamond soon. They all dressed up and had a huge sit-down dinner in the formal dining room which they never used. They almost never had meals together anymore, considering breakfast was the biggest draw for Steve’s coffee creations, and this was noted at dinner.

“Hey, yeah, what happened to that awesome coffee I used to get?” Tony said. Pepper looked away. She knew, Darcy had confided in her. Happy patted her hand in her lap. “I loved the stuff, looked forward to it every day.”

Steve just continued eating, cheeks coloring as pink as Darcy’s gown. 

“You never said anything, Tony, so the barista gave up,” Darcy explained. “You shoulda said you liked it, or said thank you.”

“I’m sorry, Tiny Dancer. I should have said thank you. You’re a good kid. Made good coffee. Those pictures were something, too. Really, how did you get the colors for the suit into the foam?”

Darcy just shook her head, which prompted Betty to speak up and change the subject, which sent Tony back into his tablet. While he was being rude, no one stopped him. He was working on a new way to turn fallow fields fertile with nitrogen from the air, but it was a tedious process. If it worked, food production in the world would triple.

No one was surprised when Steve finished his dinner early, declined dessert and retired to his room. Darcy wanted to follow him, but Clint grabbed her arm. “Little Bit, don’t. He’s gotta deal with this himself. If he’s still moping tomorrow, then go get him.”

She smiled at him. He was right. She should give Steve a little dignity and let him deal with it on his own.

In the next few days, Steve came out of his room, and he even started making the coffee art again, but not for Tony. If he didn’t care who made it, why should he bother? But his pictures got more and more elaborate, and he decided it would be the perfect time to teach the class on art of the Avengers. He called the coffee house and made the date to do it.

Steve did not expect the huge turnout of students and onlookers, but he was used to performing. And it was something he liked, something he was genuinely interested in, and good at. And he had a warm feeling about the last cup of coffee he made at the Tower, and left for Tony with a simple message on the top.

Tony sat at his workbench and reached out for the cup at his side.

“Sir, if I may?” came the ominous British voice from the room.

“Yes, JARVIS?” he asked.

“Would you take a moment to look carefully at the cup you’re about to reach for, please? I’m sure you would be pleased to see the artwork on the cup, and in the foam.”

“Must I? I’m about to figure out…”

But Tony stopped speaking and he looked at the mug. He looked at the intricate painting of his mask on the front, the gold paint that was brushed on to look like the bend in the metal, with the gleam of light just out of view glinting off the curve of the top. On the other side was the arc reactor from Tony’s chest, the last one he’d had before his surgery. The painting was exact in every way, from the shape of the designs to the shade of blue light that was emitted from the reaction. He was thoroughly impressed with the handiwork, until he looked inside the mug. Then, he was annoyed.

“OK, who gave me coffee with a butt on the top? Huh? Hello?!” he shouted to the empty lab.

“Turn it around, you fool,” Natasha said, walking into the room. She had the same slightly amused look she always wore when dressing down Tony for one thing or another.

“Excuse me?” he asked, tipping his head to the side, as if only deigning to speak to her because he was doing her a favor.

“You’re looking at the picture upside down, you idiot. Someone made something else for you.”

With a grimace of impatience, Tony turned the mug around and looked down at the picture. The pink shape wasn’t a butt; it was a heart.

“Why would Darcy give me a heart?” he asked. “She’s annoyed with me most of the time.”

“Darcy didn’t make it.”

“Who did?”

Back at the coffee house, Steve had finished giving his instructional on how to get the shield colors not to mix and was about to ask if anyone had any questions.

“Oh, Cap, you are just so amazing,” said one of the students. He was a short, Hispanic drag queen, dressed something like Jennifer Lopez. “If only you were one of us…”

“One of you? I am, we’re all…Americans? New Yorkers? What…”

“Gay.” The not-quite-shout came from the doorway. Everyone turned to see none other than Tony Stark, bespectacled in his trademark designer sunglasses, equally impressive designer suit and shoes, and a wide grin on his face.

“I’m…sorry?” Steve asked. He tried to hide the loss of thoughts, loss of breath, and dryness that crept into his throat.

“He means he wishes you were gay. Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I wish, too.”

Steve just looked down at the mug he’d been working with. The packed coffee house was so quiet, you could hear the coffee cooling.

“See, if you were gay, then all the coffee you’d made for me over the last few months would make sense. I mean, why would you hand paint my mask in exquisite detail on a mug? And my arc reactor, that you never even saw in person. I’d made it after the battle of New York, when I was living in Malibu before the Mandarin affair. See, something like that, it would make me think you were being really nice. And you are really nice, after all. You’re Captain America.”

Tony had slowly walked toward the counter where Steve was standing, took off his sunglasses and smiled up at the taller blond man.

“But what these folks here don’t know is that you’re also Steve Rogers. And Steve is far different from Captain America. He doesn’t just do things for no reason. Sure, mugs for the entire team are very sweet, but it hides what he really wanted to do, and that’s give a gift to someone he really liked. He couldn’t just tell that person he really liked them, because the person he was telling is a moron, really. The person ignores everything and everyone until someone decides to turn his head for him. And the person Steve wanted to impress, and to show how he cared...well, that man is gay.”

Steve drew in a sharp breath.

“Yeah, that’s the real reason Pepper and I broke up. Not that she couldn’t handle the suit, or the team. But she wouldn’t be a beard. And I have one anyway,” Tony joked, stroking his chin. Steve smiled.

“I saw the heart, Steve. And I’m here. Late, but I’m here. And…the other reason why Pepper left was because I’d always been in love with someone else. Someone my father loved, but not quite the same way. Someone who…if he doesn’t stop me, will cause me to babble on and tell him that I’m here for him to say whatever he wants…” And there Tony was stopped mid-sentence by a hand on the back of his neck bringing his face to Steve’s in a crushing kiss. The entire coffee house erupted in cheers. Hey, it was New York, stranger things have happened.

When they finally pulled apart, Steve was still smiling. “I should have told you.”

“No, Steve, I should have told you first.”

“Yeah, you should have. And you should have said thank you.”

“I’ve learned my lesson.”


End file.
